Chinese scientists have unveiled a new molecular mechanism designed to simultaneously enhance cold resilience and phosphate use in maize, offering a potential solution to a long-standing agricultural trade-off that affects crop yields in cold environments.
As a crop of tropical origin, maize is highly sensitive to low temperatures. Cold conditions not only stunt its growth but also restrict its ability to absorb phosphate from the soil, exposing the plant to both cold stress and nutrient deficiency.
A research team from the State Key Laboratory of Plant Environmental Resilience at China Agricultural University identified a key molecular mechanism coordinating stress adaptation and nutrient utilization in maize. Their findings were published online Thursday in the journal Nature.
The researchers identified NLA, a key E3 ubiquitin ligase that functions as a central molecular hub in regulating the plant’s cold response and phosphate uptake.
According to Yang Shuhua, co-corresponding author of the study and professor at China Agricultural University, the mechanism naturally operates like a “seesaw.” While the NLA protein enhances cold tolerance, it simultaneously suppresses the root system’s ability to absorb phosphate.
To overcome this trade-off in low-temperature conditions, the team redesigned and constructed a new variant of the NLA protein using AI-assisted protein design and gene-editing technology. Their approach enabled targeted optimization of the E3 ligase’s function, resulting in a new maize germplasm with both strong cold resilience and high phosphate use efficiency.
A commentary article in Nature noted that this strategy could be extended to improve the efficient use of other essential soil nutrients, such as nitrogen, and may play an important role in developing new crop varieties capable of withstanding complex and fluctuating environmental stresses amid global climate change.
